Fortresses of Imperial China
Irkutsk Irkutsk, on the shore of Lake Baikal, and its surroundings are the only Chinese colony of substantial size in Siberia. Due to its position close to the border with the Khaganate, and due to a rather ill-considered fit of expansionist ambition in the 1870s, there is a substantial ring fortress surrounding the city, of the typical mid-19th century polygonal style. Irkutsk is served by a long rail line, single-tracked over much of its length. Elsewhere on the Sino-Mongol border, there are no fortifications of any strategic note. Entrenched camps and blockhouses are common, and the overall border defense force is not small, but the remoteness of the area and the lack of chokepoints in the terrain make static defenses useless except as a tripwire (see the Great Wall of China and its modern successor, humorously named by Westerners as the Great Barbed Wire Fence of China). Kunming, Yunnan Province The city of Kunming in the south of China is of great strategic importance. It sits on the only rail line between China and Vietnam (the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, constructed at great expense of blood and treasure between 1902 and 1908). Even before the railroad was built, Kunming was a trading center for caravans headed further south. Moreover, foreign industrial concerns in the province make Yunnan a likely flash point for conflicts with the West. Thus, the city is covered by a ring of semimodern fortifications, with the hope of standing off a siege until reinforcements arrive. Kunming is in a small basin in mountain country; the defenses mostly concentrate on the narrow passes approaching the city. Zhennan Pass, Guangxi Province The Zhennan Pass has been the main route for commerce between China and Vietnam for centuries. In 1883, the pass served as an invasion route for a Bourbon army during the Sino-Bourbon War; a large Chinese force managed to repulse the Bourbons thanks in large part to their superior defensive position in the pass. Today, with the rise of the Empire of Vietnam as a major power in East Asia, the defenses of this pass are taken to be of extreme importance. It is held by modern fortifications designed to withstand heavy artillery bombardment almost indefinitely. Dongxing, Guangxi Province Dongxing is a coastal town on the border between China and Vietnam. Like the Zhennan Pass, it lies on a key route between the two nations. While the defenses here are less extensive than those of the Pass, they are still substantial, reaching from the shore up into the mountains north of the city, along the line of the Beilun River. Canton, Guangzhou Province Canton (Guangzhou) is one of the largest ports in China. It is the naval base for the Guangdong Fleet, which is responsible for covering Hainan and the Gulf of Tonkin. The city is also located close to the foreign concessions at Macao and Hong Kong, upriver from the estuary these ports are on. Thus, the land approaches are covered by 1880s-vintage defenses on the south bank, to prevent troops marching upriver from seizing the navy yard. A force approaching up the river would also have to fight their way past a number of coast defense batteries, up to and including battleship-grade artillery. Foochow, Jiangxi Province Foochow (Fuzhou) is the naval base for the Fujian Fleet, several miles upriver from the coast. The Foochow arsenal is also China's largest military shipyard, having recently completed construction of a pair of semi-dreadnought battleships. Moreover, the city is almost directly opposite the island of Taiwan, lost to Wa in the Sino-Wa War; as such it is a site of constant military activity. The city is covered by coast defense batteries at the river mouth, making it effectively impossible to enter artillery range of the shipyards without first dealing with the batteries. Shanghai, Jiangsu Province Shanghai, at the mouth of the Yellow River, is the base for the Nanyang Fleet and the site of the Kiangnan Arsenal. It is also the site of the International Settlement, a connected region of foreign-owned concessions that are formally the territory of various Western powers such as Pacifica, Rome, and the Freie Deutsche Republik. As such, it is the most Western city in China, and is exceptionally wealthy by Eastern standards, often known as "the Paris of the East." However, the presence of enormous numbers of foreigners makes the city an extremely likely flash point for conflicts with the West. The government maintains a large garrison near the city, either to suppress anti-Western demonstrators or (if necessary) directly invest or assault the foreign concessions. For political reasons, there are no permanent land fortifications near the city, but the river approach to Shanghai is covered by heavy coast defense batteries, including one particularly formidable position mounting four 12" battleship guns on an artificial island in the estuary. Tsingtao: Third Rate Coastal Fort Tsingtao (Qingdao) is a minor naval defense and fleet supply base; a torpedo boat squadron is based here. The port has the strategic advantage of being outside the Yellow Sea proper and thus harder for Wa forces to blockade, but the disadvantage that forces outside the Yellow Sea may be cut off from support of Chinese positions on the coast of that sea in the event of a war with the superior Wa fleet. Since it is relatively unimportant as yet, the fleet not being based there, the coast defenses are mostly designed to repel raiding cruisers. Weihaiwei, Shandong Province This port is one of two major bases for the heavy Beiyang Fleet, China's first line force for operations against the Empire of Wa. It is also the main base of the nascent Chinese submarine force. The city has substantial coastal defenses dating back to the late 1890s, to replace installations destroyed in the Sino-Wa War when the Wa took the port from the landward side. Tientsin, Zhili Province This is the alternate base for the Beiyang Fleet, being somewhat more distant from Wa attack. The fortifications here serve both to cover the naval base, and to prevent enemies from steaming upriver and attacking the capital at Peking directly. Historically, a major foreign force (mostly Pacifican and Roman) landed here during the Second Opium War; naval defenses around the city are designed to block a repeat of this campaign. Qinhuangdao, Zhili Province This city lies on the Sino-Wa border at the coast. The only rail line between China and Wa passes through the city, and it is the last narrow point in the main overland route between the two empires. As such, and in light of the outcome of the Sino-Wa war and the Wa fear of the massive Chinese army, the region is among the most heavily fortified places on Earth. On the Chinese side of the border, the front line of defenses stretches from the mountains to the shore of the Bohai Sea just west of the town of Shanhaiguen, along the line of the Shihe River. Coincidentally, Shanhaiguen is also where the historic Great Wall of China meets the sea, though the Wall serves as little defense against modern armies. The new "Great Wall" in this area consists of a series of heavily dug in fortresses with disappearing cupola-mounted guns and heavy roofs of reinforced concrete, designed to shrug off anything up to naval gunfire. Some of the cupolas mount battleship-weight guns in their own right, as a counter to expected Wa capital ship superiority in the event of a second Sino-Wa War. Several kilometers back from the main defensive works is a secondary fallback line of comparatively light, improvised works- concrete blockhouses, trenches, bomb shelters, and large ditches suited for strategic inundation. This line is permanently occupied by an elite division of the Beiyang Army, with a second division in reserve several kilometers behind this line in turn. Mountain passes, Zhili Provincial Border There are several passes through the mountains inland on the Sino-Wa border. While none carry major rail lines or pass through densely settled territory, any could potentially serve as an invasion route, and a Wa offensive that carried the passes would quickly threaten the important city of Chengde; the capital at Peking would be in danger in short order. Therefore, these passes are fortified, though the defenses are not as rugged or heavily gunned as the ones at Qinhuangdao, because they are not expected to have to deal with shore bombardment. On each pass, the front line consists of a series of underground forts positioned to sweep the pass with artillery and machine gun fire, while a permanently manned line of entrenchments lies a few kilometers to the rear. The combined length of the fortifications is roughly thirty kilometers, all told. Totals: 1 Third Rate Coastal Fortress (Tsingtao) 4 Second Rate Coastal Fortresses (Tientsin, Weihai, Foochow, Canton) 2 First Rate Coastal Fortresses (Shanghai, Qinhuangdao) 40 km Field Fortifications (backing forts on the Zhili border at Qinhuangdao and inland) 40 km Polygonal Fortifications (point fortresses at Irkutsk, Kunming and Canton, line fortress at Dongxing) 40 km Underground Fortifications (30 km along the inland passes on the Zhili border, 10km at Zhennan Pass) 10 km Reinforced Underground Fortifications (Qinhuangdao) Cost: 284 points, 15.4 $/quarter, 14500 permanent garrison troops